EUGENE, Ore. — Former Oregon women’s basketball standout Oti Gildon has rejoined her alma mater as the program’s director of player development, head women’s basketball coach Kelly Graves announced Thursday.
Gildon, who played for the Ducks from 2015-19, helped lead Oregon to two Elite Eight appearances and the program’s first Final Four in 2019. She is third in program history with 143 games played over four seasons and was a member of two Pac-12 championship teams (2018, 2019). Gildon was Oregon’s director of creativity/student-athlete support from 2020-22 and spent the 2022-23 season as an assistant coach at Seattle U on Suzy Barcomb’s staff, working with the team’s forwards and post players.
“We are so happy to have Oti back with our program,” said Graves. “She was a foundational player for us who really helped build this program up to what it is, and she has gained invaluable experience as both a collegiate coach and professional player overseas. We are so thrilled to have Oti in this player development role and back in Eugene where she belongs.”
“I’m excited to be coming back home and stepping into the player development role where I can work with high-level athletes, such as the ones we have at Oregon,” Gildon said. “I’m also excited to work with Coach Graves and his talented staff.”
After graduating from UO in 2019 with a general social sciences degree in crime, law and society, Gildon went on to play professionally in Portugal for Lombos Quina. She averaged a double-double (16.8 ppg, 10.2 rpg) on her way to being named the 2020 Portugal Eurobasketball Forward of the Year along with a Eurobasketball All-Portuguese first-team selection.
A native of Spokane, Wash., Gildon is a two-time USA Basketball 3×3 national champion (2018, 2019) and represented Team USA at the 2018 FIBA 3×3 World Cup in the Philippines.
Gildon finished her Oregon career with 583 points and 414 rebounds and is tied for the most NCAA Tournament games played in program history with 13. Her career 59.6 field-goal percentage in NCAA Tournament games ranks second in UO history.
